Urban Design Compendium

Poundbury (219)

219 - Reducing car dependency

Poundbury will deliver over 2,000 homes by 2018 along with workspaces, shops and other facilities.

The development makes full provision for car ownership, but has been designed to encourage travel on foot, by bicycle and by bus. There is clear evidence that those who already live and work there are less car dependent than people in comparable communities elsewhere.

Each phase of the development has been designed around a network of spaces to create a series of distinctive neighbourhoods. Streets and squares are formed by the arrangement of buildings, with the carriageway designed on the tracking principle. Traffic calming is built into the overall layout rather than treated as a later addition. Parking provision is mainly in squares and courtyards, where the parking spaces are overlooked by adjoining houses and buildings.